The first Jews arrived in Mauritius from Haifa, British Palestine, in the 1940s because they were denied entry to Palestine by the British Government as they arrived without entry permits. In 1940, the first ship carrying the 1,800 Jews to Mauritius, the Patria, was accidentally bombed by the Haganah, who wanted the Jews to stay in Palestine. Their intentions were to cripple the ship. There were 260 fatalities and 172 injuries. The surviving Jews were sent to Atlit detainee camp. The remaining 1,584 refugees from the Atlantic were sent to a detainment camp in Beau-Bassin, where they stayed for five years.

In the camp, the detainees suffered from tropical diseases and inadequate food and clothing. Isia Birger, a local Jewish man, married to a local Catholic woman, interceded on behalf of the detainees and liaised between them and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. This resulted in aid in the form of food, clothing, medicine, religious items and musical instruments. Initially, there was an enforced ban on interaction between the sexes; the men were held in a former jailhouse and the women in adjacent iron huts.

During their detention, there was no family life for nearly 18 months, then finally, married women were given a pass to be allowed to visit their husbands during certain hours of the day. The main reason they were detained is because the British believed there were Nazi spies among them. When the British realized there were no spies among the prisoners, some of them went to work outside of the prison and marriage was allowed among the single detainees. After the ban was lifted, 60 children were born in the camp.

In total, 128 prisoners died in the camp, and were buried in the Jewish section of St. Martin Cemetery. At the end of World War II, the detainees were given the choice of returning to their former homes in Europe or immigrating to Palestine. Most chose Palestine, and on August 6, 1945, 1,320 landed in Haifa.

Today, the Mauritius Jewish Community consists of 150 members, though they are unrelated to the World War II refugees. Until recently, there were no long-term Jewish residents on the island. Under the Deed of Grant in 1946, the Board of Deputies gained ownership of the Mauritius Jewish cemetery. For a number of years, Jacques Desmarais, a non-Jew Mauritian, voluntarily maintained the cemetery. In 1958, the Board, along with a few individual sponsors, donated their time and money to repair the Jewish section of the cemetery. Other major restorations were carried out during the 1980s, 2000, and 2001.

There is also one synagogue in Curepipe, the Amicale Maurice Israel Centre, which was opened in 2005. The Saint Martin Cemetery in Saint Martin near Beau-Bassin, is the only Jewish cemetery in Mauritius.  In 2000, Rabbi Silberhalft officiated at the first barmitzvah in Mauritius since World War II.